The orphan keeper : a novel, based on a true story

The orphan keeper A novel, based on a true story

Camron Steve Wright

eBook - 2016

Based on a remarkable true story Seven-year-old Chellamuthu's life-and his destiny-is forever changed when he is kidnapped from his village in Southern India and sold to the Lincoln Home for Homeless Children. His family is desperate to find him, and Chellamuthu anxiously tells the Indian orphanage that he is not an orphan, he has a mother who loves him. But he is told not to worry, he will soon be adopted by a loving family in America. Chellamuthu is suddenly surrounded by a foreign land and a foreign language. He can't tell people that he already has a family and becomes consumed by a single, impossible question: How do I get home? But after more than a decade, home becomes a much more complicated idea as the Indian boy eventua...lly sheds his past and receives a new name: Taj Khyber Rowland. It isn't until Taj meets an Indian family who helps him rediscover his roots, as well as marrying Priya, his wife, who helps him unveil the secrets of his past, that he begins to discover the truth he has all but forgotten. Taj is determined to return to India and begin the quest to find his birth family. But is it too late? Is it possible that his birth mother is still looking for him? And which family does he belong to now? From the best-selling author of The Rent Collector, this is a deeply moving and gripping journey about discovering one's self and the unbreakable family bonds that connect us forever.

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Subjects
Kidnapping victims > Fiction.
Adoptees > Identification > Fiction.
East Indian Americans > Fiction.
Electronic books.
Published
[United States] : Shadow Mountain Publishing 2016.
Language
English
Corporate Author
hoopla digital
Main Author
Camron Steve Wright (author)
Corporate Author
hoopla digital (-)
Online Access
Instantly available on hoopla.
Cover image
Physical Description
1 online resource
Format
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
ISBN
9781629734668
Access
AVAILABLE FOR USE ONLY BY IOWA CITY AND RESIDENTS OF THE CONTRACTING GOVERNMENTS OF JOHNSON COUNTY, UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, HILLS, AND LONE TREE (IA).
Contents unavailable.
Review by Booklist Review

Despite having been adopted from India, Taj Rowland is an excelling American teen: senior-class president, a varsity athlete, and popular with his classmates at his all-white Colorado high school. But when he's matched with an Indian family during a study-abroad program in London, Taj begins to remember pieces of his childhood, including his original name, Chellamuthu, and the family from which he was kidnapped and sold to an orphanage. Hoping to understand more about his identity, Taj immerses himself in Indian culture, starts an import-export company, and eventually marries an Indian woman, Priya, who turns out to have a surprising connection to his past. Armed with a map drawn from memory and accompanied by his business partner, Christopher Raj, Taj returns to India to search for his birth family. Wright (The Rent Collector, 2012) turns the story of the real-life Chellamuthu/Taj into a meditation on identity and the meaning of family, and a novel that is sure to be a book-club favorite.--Harmon, Lindsay Copyright 2016 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

"Why have you kept your story a secret, Taj?" the interviewer asks me. A simple question. A difficult answer. I am a grown man, but I still hesitate. He prods. "Are you ready to tell your story because it may inspire others?" "No!" It's an answer that spills out before I can stop it. I take a breath. How do I explain? "You're both writers," I say. "You take ideas and words and confusing bits of life and weave them together into a captivating story-one that you hope not only entertains, but somehow makes sense of the world. Is that right?" The man holding his laptop closes the lid. His friend sets down his notepad and pen. A glance crosses between them. "Well, isn't it?" I ask again, my tone more edgy than I intend. "That's the goal," the writer by the camera admits. I lean closer. "This will appear selfish and I don't mean to sound that way." I lick my lips and lower my chin. "I'm ready to tell my story not just because it may help others-which I hope it will-but because it's time I try to make sense of my past. I hope that by finally talking about all of this, by pulling it out and casting a little light on it ... my desire is to somehow ... well, I guess I want to ..." "What is it?" "I'm hoping to forgive God." Excerpted from The Orphan Keeper by Camron Wright All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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